


To scare off black butterflies

by Blikdelie



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien confused, F/M, Ml season 3 spoilers, Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 18:45:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16979817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blikdelie/pseuds/Blikdelie
Summary: Leaving Lila alone appears to be harder than Marinette had imagined.





	To scare off black butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I'm alive! And I know I'm super late for the first episode of season 3, but I'm really busy now, and my phone has problems with text input. So this oneshot took me like forever to write.

BA-DUM!  
Marinette jerked up at the sound and looked to the right in bewilderment.  
Lila Rossi was sprawled on the floor, her face a mix of shock and bitterness. The class was unusually silent.  
The pigtailed girl turned to her best friend with a confused frown, and was met with a cold expression.  
“Oh, it's okay! I'm sure Marinette just stuck out her leg by accident. Without any bad intention,” sounded from behind her. Wait, what? Her legs were stated quite securely under the desk. That little... The girl twirled around and was momentarily met with Lila’s sweet smile. “Right, Marinette?”  
Marinette opened her mouth to say something, to object, to tell everyone that was a lie, but was interrupted by a swarm of voices.  
“How could you, Marinette?!” Rose whimpered. “Lila is such a good friend!”  
“Are you proud of yourself?!” Mylene hissed.  
“I can't get it, girl,” Alya voiced coldly. “Why do you keep doing this? You're exactly what Chloe had been like to you.”  
“Take your seats, class please!” Madame Bustier announced. “It's okay, nothing bad happened!” Marinette let herself hope… “Marinette, you need to apologise to Lila though.”  
All hopes got crushed. Apologize? For what? For sitting still?  
But no one had seen anything. So all of classmates were now positive that she was the one to make Lila trip. And how could she claim to be right, when she had no proof?  
Fists clenched at her sides, eyes downcast, she mumbled, “Sorry, Lila. I didn't mean to hurt you.”  
A hint of a triumphant smile touched Lila's lips. “Of course, Marinette,” she singsonged, getting up from the floor. But immediately tripped and fell again. “Sorry,” she hurried to explain, “guess, I just sprained my ankle. I'll be at my seat in a moment.”  
“Oh, you don't have to,” Alya interjected. “You can switch places with Marinette until your ankle is fine.” She looked at her friend pointedly, as if saying “that was your doing, girl. Time to fix it.”  
Marinette sighed and picked up her backpack. Following Adrien's advice was getting harder with every breath.

\---  
The morning photoshoot ended up past eight, and Adrien was getting late for school. Again.  
He only hoped Marinette was fine. He knew he was the one to advice her to let Lila be. But now he honestly regretted that decision.  
Adrien knew that was what Ladybug would have done. But he was not Ladybug, and Marinette wasn't either.  
He had already witnessed black butterflies fly away from the girl over the last week. Adrien had no idea how she was doing it, but she was fighting back her dark emotions. Quite successfully, really. But they kept coming back, and that was the problem.  
The boy raised his head, searching for the right window. And immediately saw an akuma fly away from it. The boy groaned in distress and hurried towards the class, taking two steps at a time. He threw the door open, breathing heavily, and checked his surroundings. Marinette was seated at the back of the class, while Lila had taken her seat. The boy pursed his lips and tried to slip to the back of the class to join the girl.  
“M-me Bustier, Adrien is here!” Lila's cheerful voice rang, making all heads turn to him.  
“Adrien, why don't you take your seat, dear?” M-me Bustier offered.  
Adrien raised his hand to his nape awkwardly. “Actually, I was about to ask…” he faltered. “I was about to ask if I could sit in the back today…”  
M-me Bustier raised hey brows. “Why?”  
“Umm… that's because…”  
“Adrien, isn't Nino your best friend?” Lila interjected. “Don't you want to sit with him?”  
“Lila's right, Adrien” the teacher nodded. “This is the middle of a lesson. Why don't we discuss it during the break?”  
Adrien sighed and took his seat next to Nino. The last thing he managed to see before turning his head was the fluttering of dark wings outside the window.

\---  
“Hey, Ladybug,” Chat Noir called, observing the street below.  
“Yeah?”  
“How do you scare off dark butterflies?”  
They were meeting up quite often lately to the point when Adrien was thinking that offering regular patrols might be a good idea. It seemed that all those akumas who couldn't evilize Marinette, went to find other victims. And fighting then was really tiring.  
“What do you mean?” the girl frowned.  
“How do you avoid butterflies coming after you?” Chat Noir explained. “I mean, what do I do to never see them come after me?”  
Surely she knew. She had never been akumatized after all.  
“Yeah,” the girl chuckled, “I would be happy to know that. They have tried to evilize me four times just today. And about thirty around past two weeks.”  
Well, that was weird. Maybe that villain had changed his tactics and was pushing his butterflies towards every girl who was being upset? And they were not that hard to scare off? Maybe Marinette's case want that bad after all? Then again, he didn't see those butterflies approach anyone but Marinette these days. Nor had he seen anyone make butterflies fly away.  
“Wow, you must be really down to attract akumas, My Lady,” he drawled absentmindedly, still calculating the chances.  
“Yeah,” she sighed. “There's a new girl in my class. She's been lying constantly since she appeared, and I hate it. But people still believe her for some reason.”  
Ha. Quite a similar situation. So, Ladybug also had a new girl behaving like Lila in her class.  
“Like, honestly, it's so obvious she's lying!” The girl gritted her teeth. “She “saved Jagged Stone's kitten”? Seriously?”  
Yeah, those lies also resembled Lila a lot. Chat gulped.  
“And today she pretended to have tripped over my foot. And then lied that her ankle was hurt.” She fumed. “I had to change seats with her, because it was hard for her to make all that way to the back. And now I'm sitting in the back row. Alone.”  
Chat Noir watched in wonder how a small black butterfly rounded the corner, fluttering its dark wings. It almost managed to come close, when Ladybug took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The butterfly changed its course, lingering on top of a nearby chimney. The boy felt himself shake. He had definitely seen it before. Like, multiple times.  
Like, two or three times just today.  
Just not with Ladybug. That was… that was…  
“But there must be someone in your class who believes you?” Chat offered in a trembling voice.  
Ladybug sighed contently with a dreamy smile.  
“Yeah,” she breathed, resting her cheek in her palm. “There's this guy in my class.”  
The cat hero felt a jolt of fire shoot through his body.  
“He knows that she is lying. And, actually, it was him, who told me not to interfere.” Ladybug frowned. “Honestly, now I'm beginning to regret that.”  
“So, it was that guy you like…” he croaked.  
“Yeah,” she sighed once more.  
Ladybug caught herself and turned to her partner. He didn't look good by this point. His breath was frantic, his cheeks flushed, and his eyes were scanning his surroundings, without meeting her eyes.  
“Are you okay, Chat?” she asked, concerned. “I probably shouldn't have talked about that guy I love…”  
“No!” Chat squeaked. Then coughed, and continued more solidly. “I'm happy I could learn more about you.”  
The girl smiled to him. “Thank you, Chat,” she rested a hand on his shoulder. “You are such a good friend.”  
They sat like that a bit more, basking in each other's presence. Ladybug was happy to have another friend who trusted her around. And Chat Noir was thinking that he might have found the means to pry away those butterflies.  
Butterflies…  
“Damn…” he muttered and the next moment he was on his feet. “My Lady, I forgot to tell you… We have an akuma on the loose.”  
“You what?..”

\---  
“Thank you so much, Nino, for switching seats with me!” Lila exclaimed from the front, making Marinette flinch. “This is so generous of you! I hope Adrien won't mind me sitting next to him,” she added warily. “But I'm sure he'll understand since my ankle is hurt.”  
Marinette cringed in distaste and looked away. This was not the time to confront a liar. At least, Lila wasn't attacking her directly this time.  
M-me Bustier entered the class, followed by Adrien. Marinette watched Lila perk up, cringed and turned to stare out of the window again, just not to watch Lila touch Adrien.  
She heard whispers and then someone slid into the bench next to her. The girl turned around. Her gaze slid by curious faces of most of her classmates, a look of betrayal on Chloe's face, by fuming Lila, by very excited Alya and settled on Adrien, now sitting next to her.  
The boy have her a small wave. “You don't mind, do you?”  
Marinette shook her head eagerly and turned to the front. She wasn't going to screw up this one. Not like she did before.  
One thing was gnawing at her mind though.  
“How did you manage to get this seat?” she whispered, bending her head towards the blond.  
“Oh, I just caught m-me Bustier early, told her about my feelings and asked for a permission to sit next to you.”  
Marinette's brain short circuited. Did she hear that right?  
“Y-your feelings? Towards who?” She asked lamely, searching his eyes.  
“My feelings about you, obviously,” he whispered back. “That I love you and want to win you over. She didn't mind in the least, by the way.”  
Ah, so she was daydreaming. That explained it all. Marinette pinched her arm and hissed in pain. Adrien turned to her in concern.  
“Are you okay? Gosh, you are pale!”  
“I…” the girl gulped. “You… love?..”  
“Oh, I didn't know it was such a secret. Especially after I told you myself…” he bent his head, lingering his lips by her ear. “My lady.”  
Marinette inhaled sharply. Did he just?.. She turned her head, watching him wide-eyed.  
And right at this moment he had the audacity to wink.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, English is still not my language, and I haven't written anything in past five months. So if you see any mistakes, please tell me about them!  
> Thank you for reading!! I hope you could give me kudos and post a comment... Maybe... Please?  
> :)


End file.
